Extracurricular Sketcher Fest: Ice Cream Cruise and More

 

7/10/26 Ice Cream Cruise from Fishermen's Terminal through the Ship Canal, Lake Union and Lake Washington

After three consecutive years of participating in the Ice Cream Cruise, it is still my favorite Sketcher Fest event! (See my posts from 2025 and 2024.) Although not strictly part of the weekend event in Edmonds, the cruise offers the guest artists and volunteers an opportunity to relax and socialize before the busy event gets under way. This year, Gab Campanario organized cruises on two days, so more sketchers were able to attend.

Boarding the chartered Fremont Avenue at Fishermen’s Terminal, we cruised through the Lake Washington Ship Canal to Lake Union and all the way to Lake Washington and back. There is something so relaxing and serene about being on the water on a sparkling morning, sketching while chatting with friends.

As I’ve done in previous years, I made small vignettes of anything that caught my eye, chasing perspective around bends in the water or simply overlooking perspective. 

Sticker by Johnny

After we docked again at Fishermen’s Terminal, some of us stayed for lunch and then lingered for more sketching at the terminal (below).

Fishermen's Memorial

Fishermen's Terminal

When that was done, a few of us still hadn’t had enough fun, so we moved on to nearby Ballard Locks, where we discovered stamps for our sketchbooks in the visitors’ center.

Ballard Locks

What a fun-filled day!

Group photo just after the cruise

Lake Washington Ship Canal and Montlake Bridge

Fishermen's Terminal throwdown

Ice Cream Cruise throwdown

Extracurricular Sketcher Fest: Denny Hall and Lake Union

 

7/9/26 UW campus

Kumi Matsukawa and I have been following each other for years. I have many fond memories of sketching with her in Tokyo in 2015 and again in 2017 during the Chicago symposium. When I heard she would be on this year’s Sketcher Fest roster as a guest artist and workshop instructor, I jumped at the opportunity to be her assistant.

A couple of days before the official event began, Cathy and I took her to a few spots for some warmup sketching. Our original plans were thwarted by a power outage on some parts of the light rail, so we improvised and found places closer to home that I could easily drive to, such as the University of Washington campus (above).

When we couldn’t find parking at Gas Works Park, Kumi suggested that we simply stop at any street where the lake and urban stuff was visible, such as power lines and poles (a sketcher after my own heart).

Northlake

We ended the fun day with dinner and beverages at Gasworks Brewing, which has a huge sunny patio. Bonus: I scored parking very close to this popular venue, which was mobbed. We even got a table without waiting!

Gasworks Brewing Co.

Cathy, Kumi and me at Denny Hall

Extracurricular Sketcher Fest: UW Quad and Lake Union Park

 

7/8/26 UW Quad cherry trees

Although the University of Washington Quad cherry trees get all the fanfare when they blossom, those same trees have sublime beauty in fall. In summer, they hardly get any notice, but I love these old trees in all seasons.

Cathy is in town for Sketcher Fest, and I thought it would be fun to show her the UW campus, including the Quad’s cherry trees. Without showy blossoms, the massive, gnarled trunks can steal the show.

The next day, despite a light rail power outage that slowed our travel down considerably, I enjoyed showing Cathy Lake Union Park and the vintage boats moored there.

7/9/26 Lake Union Park

Discovery Park Radar Tower

 

7/7/26 Discovery Park

Since I hadn’t been to Discovery Park in many years (since 2012, according to my blog), I ended up hiking on many incorrect trails to find this view of the 100-foot Ft. Lawton radar tower. Now a landmark historic site, the US Air Force’s Cold War “Radome” operated from 1960 to 1963.

I can see this "golf ball" from my house in Maple Leaf seven miles away! My intention was to make a larger color sketch, but with no shade, I never got past this thumbnail study. I’ll go back on a less sunny day to sketch it again.

The Most Direct Path

 

5/18/14 Cannon Beach

3/1/16 Cannon Beach

On July 2, I lost my beloved spouse guy of 37 years. Loss is not new to me; I have been losing Greg a little more each day for many years. After walking with him on the long, hard road through dementia, I am relieved and grateful that he is finally free.

5/23/19 Photographing the viaduct

9/30/16 Greg watching as our skylight is reinstalled.

My heart is broken.

Even when I knew the end was close, I kept drawing. The day he died and every day since, I have continued drawing. It heals and sooths me as nothing else can. The world may feel like it has stopped, but in fact, it goes on, and I’m still part of it. Drawing is my most direct path to all that I love about life, even when the biggest part of it has gone.

(Shown here are a few sketches I’ve made of Greg, mostly from my early sketching years. I’ve also practiced a few portraits from photos, and I think I got him to sit for me briefly just once. I made my last drawing of him two days before he died. That one’s just for me and won’t be shared.)

4/28/26

Green Lake Trees

 

7/5/26 Green Lake Park

Every now and then, I’m a good girl: Before launching into the larger color sketch, I made a small thumbnail (below) to study the composition.

PSA: Sketchbook ID

 

I put these labels on all sketchbooks (and even notebooks) I take out of the house. I regret that they look so messy -- the digitally garbled text is just to obscure the phone numbers for this post. The line that has been Sharpied out, however, is my former email address, which I changed shortly after I got hundreds of these labels printed on sale. Poor timing.

Look at the sketchbooks you’re using right now: Is your contact information somewhere on the covers? If not, put it there – RIGHT NOW! (Go ahead – I’ll wait here.)

It is usually hearing yet another sad story of a sketcher losing their sketchbook that prompts me to trot out this PSA. Just in the past few weeks, I’ve heard two such stories. One book is still at large, but contact info is in place, so we’re all hoping that book eventually finds its way back home. Eleanor Doughty recently wrote of her ordeal of losing a sketchbook while traveling in Washington, DC – and she eventually got it back! But I’ve heard many other stories without happy endings – and usually it’s because the books had no contact info.

Lately I’ve been adding an additional label to my sketchbook covers: My emergency contact’s phone number. Here’s my logic:

I used to follow an old bit of advice I learned way back when smart phones were new. My emergency contact person could be found as ICE (“in case of emergency”) pinned to the top of my phone’s contacts listing. Apparently first responders know to look for the ICE designation. But it occurred to me that my phone is now secured, so a first responder wouldn’t be able to get to that information. I needed a different solution.

I asked myself, When am I most likely to be out alone when I might befall an emergency? The answer: When I’m out sketching. If my sketchbook is in my bag or nearby, maybe someone coming to my aid would think to look in it for contact info? I hope so.